Indian Removal Policy of Andrew Jackson

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The Government had agreed to deal with the Natives through “formal treaties”, but a lot of changes were made as the government erased and redrew treaty line after treaty line, making their way more towards West. However, many Americans felt respect towards the Indians. They wanted them to be part of their society so they tried to Christianize them, civilize them, gave them the chance to attain literacy. Some Tribes resisted and some followed, especially the “Five Civilized Tribes”-which included the Seminoles, Cherokee, Creeks, Choctaw, and the Chickasaw.

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The Native Americans related to these tribes went to school, learned about agriculture, owned private property, and even owned black slaves. They became very open to the idea of joining the “white man’s society”. Even after all that compromise of the Native Americans, the land hungry whites still wanted to own more land. According to Thomas Jefferson’s policy it was said to respect the Native Americans’ rights to their homelands.

But Jackson’s democrats were committed to western expansion. Jackson’s strongest support came from the western frontier states, where the demand for expansion was strong. Jackson wanted the Indian land to belong to the white man. Thus Andrew Jackson made ‘Indian removal’ part of his campaign, and promised to remove, subjugate and distribute Indian held lands to the people, this promise of free land appealed to the people and he was elected.

His first act as President was to push through the “Indian Removal Act” giving himself the power to remove the natives. The Indian Removal policy of President Andrew Jackson was prompted by the desire of white settlers in the South to expand lands belonging to five Indian tribes. The desire of the western frontier white settlers to relocate Indians to the West was mainly a consequence of the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828.